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Serious Sam: Tormental

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Serious Sam: Tormental
Developer(s)Gungrounds
Publisher(s)Devolver Digital
Director(s)Kristian Macanga[1]
Designer(s)Kristian Macanga[1]
Programmer(s)
  • Kristian Macanga
  • Guy Unger
  • Ivan Gabriel Juričić
  • Goran Tomašić[1]
Artist(s)
  • Guy Unger
  • Menno Stas
  • Ana Marija Lončar
  • Goran Tomašić[1]
Writer(s)Darkcola, MD[1]
Composer(s)
SeriesSerious Sam
EngineUnity
Platform(s)Windows
Release8 April 2022
Genre(s)Twin-stick shooter, rogue-lite
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

Serious Sam: Tormental is a 2022 twin-stick shooter and rogue-lite game developed by Gungrounds and published by Devolver Digital. One or two players traverse procedurally generated levels across several stages set in the mind of Mental, the antagonist of the Serious Sam series. They use two weapons each, of which the primary weapon can be enhanced through "mods" found throughout the game. The unlockable player characters can perform dodge rolls and a unique special ability. Upon the player character's defeat, the player is reset to the start of the game. After completing all stages, the players can use black keys to unlock power-ups from a vault. The stages then loop with increasing difficulty.

Gungrounds initially developed Spitfire Inferno with inspiration from Geometry Wars. After exhibiting the game at several video game conferences, the studio became a part of Croteam Incubator, the development team expanded, and the game's theme was shifted to the Serious Sam series. Spitfire Inferno was renamed Tormental, then Serious Sam: Tormental. It was made available in early access in April 2019 and released in April 2022. The game received mixed reviews, with praise for its humour, art, and combat, with criticism towards technical issues, repetitiveness, and lack of innovation.

Gameplay

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The player, as NETRICSA (centre), fighting several enemies

Serious Sam: Tormental is a twin-stick shooter with rogue-lite elements.[2][3] It takes place within the mind of Mental, the antagonist of the Serious Sam series.[3] Mental's frontal lobe serves as a hub area.[4] The player chooses from one of several player characters, starting with Sam "Serious" Stone and unlocking further characters during gameplay.[5][6] They traverse procedurally generated rooms within multiple thematic stages. Each room contains enemies that need to be defeated before the player can progress. These enemies use either melee or projectiles, both of which inflict damage on the player character.[6] The character can simultaneously use two weapons: a primary weapon with highly available ammunition and a "serious" weapon with high power and limited bullets. The primary weapon can be enhanced through "mods" either found in chests or purchased at shops that appear within stages. Chests provide three random upgrades to choose from, while shops require the spending of the currency obtained by defeating enemies. Upgrades include bullets that ignite enemies and a rate of fire increase in exchange for a lowered damage per bullet.[5][6]

To evade enemies and projectiles, the player character can perform a dodge roll. Large enemies with low health may be defeated with such a roll, which grants better rewards than a regular kill.[5][6] The player can also activate bombs placed in rooms, which inflict damage on both the character and enemies.[6] Between rooms, characters can be freed using previously collected golden keys to make them selectable at the start of the game.[5] Each character has a unique special ability, such as Sam, who can jump over hazards.[5][6] A boss occurs at the end of each stage.[6] When the player character's health is depleted, gameplay pauses and the player is reset to the start of the game with all weapons and upgrades revoked.[5] Over time, the player collects thirty-two black keys used to unlock power-ups in the vault that occurs after completing all stages once. These power-ups become permanently available to find during regular gameplay. After the vault, the stages loop and the player returns to the first stage with an increased difficulty.[7] The game can be played cooperatively with a second local player.[5]

Development and release

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Serious Sam: Tormental was developed by Gungrounds, a Croatian indie game studio.[8][9] It was the studio's second game after Rocking Pilot, which was co-developed and published by Mad Head Games in May 2017.[10][11] Kristian Macanga and Guy Unger initially developed a game titled Spitfire or Spitfire Inferno, which they modelled after Geometry Wars.[8][9] They had previously collaborated on a game for the "Indies VS PewDiePie" game jam held in November 2014.[9][12] While exhibiting Spitfire Inferno at the Reboot InfoGamer conference in Croatia, it was acknowledged by members of Croteam, who tracked the team's progress across further events—Reboot Develop, the Slovenian Games Conference, and the Central European Games Conference—and eventually invited them to Croteam's business incubator programme.[9] The Gungrounds team grew over time, adding programmers Ivan Gabriel Juričić and Goran Tomašić, as well as artist Ana Marija Lončar, who the team had met at Reboot InfoGamer 2018. Additionally, Croteam's Roman Ribarić, Andrej Smoljan and Damjan Mravunac acted as producer, sound effects artist and composer, respectively.[1][9] Gungrounds used the Unity game engine since the team members were already familiar with it and because it supported multiple platforms.[9]

As the expanded team was unhappy with Spitfire Inferno's theme, Ribarić suggested that Gungrounds shift the game to the Serious Sam universe.[9] After choosing Mental's mind as the target setting, the game was renamed Tormental.[8][9] It drew further influence from Nuclear Throne, The Binding of Isaac, Enter the Gungeon, and other Serious Sam games.[3][9] Croteam's incubator programme was formally announced as Croteam Incubator in March 2018.[13][14] At this time, Gungrounds was based in the same Zagreb office as the five other studios in the programme.[14] A prototype of Tormental was exhibited at the April 2018 Reboot Develop conference in Dubrovnik to attract the attention of game designer Rami Ismail, who, after extensively playing the game, gave his detailed impressions to the developers.[8]

Tormental was due to be launched in Steam Early Access in August 2018 but was delayed to allow for quality assurance and the completion of some existing features.[15][16] A prototype was released as freeware via Itch.io in March 2019.[17] The early access version, now renamed Serious Sam: Tormental, was launched on 2 April 2019 for Windows, with Croteam Incubator acting as the publisher.[18][19][20] This version introduced John Dick as the voice actor for Sam.[20][21] The game was initially intended to remain in early access for 6–12 months, depending on player feedback and prospective further features.[9] Upon the initial release, Gungrounds announced a shortened prospective period of 2–3 months, though noting that it could change based on internal milestones.[2] The studio anticipated bringing the game to the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One should the first release be successful.[9] With the "Fortress Update" released on 8 April 2022, Serious Sam: Tormental was taken out of early access with Devolver Digital as its publisher.[22][23]

Reception

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Serious Sam: Tormental received "mixed or average reviews", according to the review aggregator website Metacritic, which calculated a weighted average rating of 66/100 based on five critic reviews.[24] Daniele Cucchiarelli of The Games Machine enjoyed the game's humour and found it to fit with the rest of the series. He commended the expansive arsenal and challenge the game poses, as well as the "nice" and distinguishing art style.[4] KC Nwosu, in his review for The Escapist, similarly enjoyed the art style, which he believed fit the series better than those found in other entries. He regarded the movement and shooting mechanics as "adequate" but lamented that obtained weapons and upgrades "never reach the necessary level of absurdity to excite players to go another run".[7] Cucchiarelli faulted several technical issues and saw the game as failing to be inventive, while Nwosu thought that the game was "incredibly small in scope and gives way to tedium much quicker than its replayable structure should allow".[4][7]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g Gungrounds (8 April 2022). Serious Sam: Tormental (Windows). Devolver Digital. Scene: Credits.
  2. ^ a b Arif, Shabana (3 April 2019). "There's a new Serious Sam game out right now on Steam". VG247. Archived from the original on 12 September 2020. Retrieved 12 September 2020.
  3. ^ a b c Brown, Fraser (3 April 2019). "Serious Sam: Tormental lets you invade a demigod's brain". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on 12 September 2020. Retrieved 12 September 2020.
  4. ^ a b c d Cucchiarelli, Daniele (20 April 2022). "Serious Sam: Tormental – Recensione" [Serious Sam: Tormental – Review]. The Games Machine (in Italian). Archived from the original on 13 May 2022. Retrieved 13 May 2022.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g YamaChan (12 April 2019). "Harō! Steam hiroba dai 236-kai: Shiriasu Samu o daizai ni shita uchimakuri-kei rōguraitoshūtingu "Serious Sam: Tormental"" ハロー！Steam広場 第236回：シリアス・サムを題材にした撃ちまくり系ローグライトシューティング「Serious Sam: Tormental」 [Hello! Steam Square #236: Serious Sam-theme rogue-lite shooter "Serious Sam: Tormental"]. 4Gamer.net (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 12 September 2020. Retrieved 12 September 2020.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Kissa, Bandō (13 May 2019). ""Serious Sam: Tormental" ano "Samu" ga mata kaettekita! "Shiriasu Samu" no supin'ofu-teki akushongēmu ga tōjō [totte oki indī]" 『Serious Sam: Tormental』あの“サム”がまた帰ってきた！『シリアス・サム』のスピンオフ的アクションゲームが登場【とっておきインディー】 ["Serious Sam: Tormental" – That "Sam" is back! A spin-off action game of "Serious Sam" is now available [Indie Special]]. Famitsu (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 12 September 2020. Retrieved 12 September 2020.
  7. ^ a b c Nwosu, KC (15 April 2022). "Serious Sam: Tormental Review in 3 Minutes – Solid Yet Repetitive Rogue-Lite Shooting". The Escapist. Archived from the original on 14 August 2022. Retrieved 14 August 2022.
  8. ^ a b c d Raknić, Damjan (24 April 2018). "Što hrvatskim stvarateljima video igara značI konferencija Reboot Develop – Mogućnost da igru pokažu poznatim dizajnerima neprocjenjiva je" [What the Reboot Develop conference means to Croatian video game creators – The ability to show the game to famous designers is invaluable]. Jutarnji list (in Croatian). Archived from the original on 12 September 2020. Retrieved 12 September 2020.
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "[GG Interview]: Gungrounds Games – Tormental". GoodGame.hr (in Croatian). 23 December 2018. Archived from the original on 12 September 2020. Retrieved 12 September 2020.
  10. ^ Okutani, Kaito (3 April 2019). "Kore mo 1tsu no Samu no katachi. Mioroshi-gata shiten ni natta supin'ofutaitoru "Serious Sam: Tormental" no ārīakusesu-ban ga tōjō" これも1つのサムの形。見下ろし型視点になったスピンオフタイトル「Serious Sam: Tormental」のアーリーアクセス版が登場 [This is also 1 in the shape of Sam. An early access version of the spin-off title "Serious Sam: Tormental" with a top-down perspective]. 4Gamer.net (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 12 September 2020. Retrieved 12 September 2020.
  11. ^ "Rocking Pilot – The Heavy Metal Twin Stick Shoot 'Em Up from Mad Head Games is Out Now on Steam" (Press release). Mad Head Games. 15 May 2017. Archived from the original on 12 September 2020. Retrieved 12 September 2020 – via Gamasutra.
  12. ^ Dimopoulos, Konstantinos (13 November 2014). "Indies VS PewDiePie: The Game Jam". IndieGames.com. Archived from the original on 15 November 2014.
  13. ^ Heaslip, Stephen (29 March 2018). "Croteam Incubator Hatches". Blue's News. Archived from the original on 30 August 2020. Retrieved 12 September 2020.
  14. ^ a b "Croteam Incubator is now officially a thing!". Croteam. 29 March 2018. Archived from the original on 30 August 2020. Retrieved 12 September 2020.
  15. ^ "Tormental is coming to Early Access". Gungrounds. 15 June 2018. Archived from the original on 12 September 2020. Retrieved 12 September 2020 – via Steam.
  16. ^ "News on Tormental release". Gungrounds. 1 August 2018. Archived from the original on 12 September 2020. Retrieved 12 September 2020 – via Steam.
  17. ^ Cunningham, James (22 March 2019). "Alpha of Serious Sam: Tormental Set Free in Advance of Early Access Release". Hardcore Gamer. Archived from the original on 12 September 2020. Retrieved 12 September 2020.
  18. ^ Cunningham, James (2 April 2019). "Serious Sam: Tormental Invades the Brain of Early Access". Hardcore Gamer. Archived from the original on 12 September 2020. Retrieved 12 September 2020.
  19. ^ Heaslip, Stephen (2 April 2019). "Serious Sam: Tormental Early Access". Blue's News. Archived from the original on 12 September 2020. Retrieved 12 September 2020.
  20. ^ a b Kaharl, Jonathan (27 August 2020). "Serious Sam Spin-Offs After Serious Sam 3". Hardcore Gaming 101. Archived from the original on 12 September 2020. Retrieved 12 September 2020.
  21. ^ Macanga, Kristian (22 March 2019). "Early Access version brings much more content!". Archived from the original on 12 September 2020. Retrieved 12 September 2020 – via Itch.io.
  22. ^ Romano, Sal (8 April 2022). "3D roguelite top-down shooter Serious Sam: Tormental now available for PC". Gematsu. Archived from the original on 9 April 2022. Retrieved 9 April 2022.
  23. ^ Macanga, Kristian (8 April 2022). "v1.0 is – Fortress Update Available Now!". Gungrounds. Archived from the original on 8 April 2022. Retrieved 8 April 2022 – via Steam.
  24. ^ a b "Serious Sam: Tormental". Metacritic. Archived from the original on 14 September 2023. Retrieved 14 September 2023.
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